The process of self-improvement

[glenatron]

How do you get better at something? In my experience the first thing is that you have to want to get better at it. That's the driving force that will get you doing everything else. On top of that you must build practice, as much as possible, and tuition from the best teachers you can find. Really, that's it. There are no short cuts and no tricks that will make you suddenly get better without putting in the hours in, if you want to get better at something you just have to work at it with experienced guidance to help you back on the right track when you start to stray.

I do, however, think there may be one thing you can do to get more mileage out of your learning and that is to immerse yourself entirely in the thing you do so that it becomes your absolute focus. If you can do that in a way that combines practice and teaching then you have a situation where you're putting in so many hours that you possibly benefit a little more from the time you put in. It is with this in mind that back in September I put down a deposit to go and spend February in Texas, as a student at Martin Black's Horsemanship School. It's expensive, logistically tricky and it will break my heart to be away from sleepsy_mouse and my grumpy black horse for the whole month, but it is an opportunity that I don't expect to have again and a whole month of intensive learning with one of the top trainers in the tradition of the Dorrances and Ray Hunt is something that I believe will progress my horsemanship significantly. I guess come March we'll know.

So the next few weeks will be quite frenetic as we prepare to move house, I prepare myself as best as I can for the course and we do all the stuff that we do in our normal lives the rest of the time. It's exciting, it's going to change things a whole lot for me, and it's a little bit nervewracking. It will be my 33rd birthday while I'm out there, so I guess this is kind of a outrageously self-indulgent birthday present to myself. I really hope it proves to be a good one.

Comments

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

holy moly!! That looks like an awesome way to spend February. Do you really harbor visions of being a cowboy?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I harbour visions of being a better horse trainer than I am now and one of our teachers is working increasingly from that California Spanish direction, so it is a good opportunity to work in a similar way but do more of it...

[flax.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!

Do you think you'll have time to blog it while you're there? I think that would be so interesting.

[stu-the-elder.livejournal.com]

According to one Oswald Osbourne, the thing to do whilst in Texas for the up-and-coming Briton in the Lone Star State is to drunkenly piss on the Alamo monument and then go through the following exchange with an outraged Texas Ranger.

"Yew little bastud! How'djew lahk it if ah pissed on Bucking-ham Palace?"

"I wouldn't give a fuck, mate, I don't live there..."

- Crumpwright

[skye-ds.livejournal.com]

"We'll leave the porch light on fer ye" ;-)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I will be writing it up while I'm there and taking pictures as the opportunity presents ( hence the netbook mentioned in my previous post ) so yes, you'll doubtless get a lot more detail than you need or feel to be interesting either while I'm away or when I get back.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

You better had, I'll doubtless get terribly lost...

[z111.livejournal.com]

Wow! I hope you keep us lj people updated! Congrats!

[penella22.livejournal.com]

Moving house and going away for a month sounds potentially a bit overwhelming to me, but the happy thing is its all good changes, and I have every hope that whatever sorts of stressful moments you hit between now and when you set foot on the ranch, that they all disappear in that moment leaving you free to focus on the adventure ahead.

Martin Black looks like a very common-sense kinda guy, judging from one of his videos on youtube. And it looks like you'll be doing plen-ty of riding every day, so I wish you a speedy recovery through the sore muscles phase of things. :P

I'm very excited for you as many horse owners wish for the chance to do something like this and its great to see that you'll be able to go out and do it. A month spent learning nothing but training horses sounds like paradise to me (provided its with the right trainer) and I hope its that good an experience for you too.

And I absolutely trust you'll keep us posted. :]

[ownedbyhorses.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a great birthday present!

BTW you will be about 4 hours from me, which in Southwest Driving is like right next door... :)

Do you have some TX LJ friends you'll be hanging with? Dallas will be an extremely hard city to drive around in; Denton is a great college town and has some good bookstores.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I most certainly hope to visit skye_ds who is not too far to the south of where I'm going to be. Beyond that I haven't really planned where I was going or when because I don't yet know how we'll be working things in terms of weekends and so on, but if there are people nearby and if I have my own wheels I would certainly be quite up for visiting...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't think I'll run out of riding while I'm out there. At the moment the whole idea is so overwhelming to me that I can't really imagine what it might be like, a bit like trying to imagine the density of a black hole or the breadth of a galaxy. I'll be totally overawed at first but I think it will be amazing once I get into it. Of course, it may all be way too much so that I come back and never want to see another horse in my life. Alternatively sleepsy_mouse has a theory that I just won't come back at all...

I really like the articles he writes for Eclectic Horseman (http://www.eclectic-horseman.com/content/category/4/26/33/), those are what put me onto him in the first place- very clear, very common-sense.

A lot of people do dream of doing something like this and I guess I'm very lucky to have the support in place that I can act on that dream...

The moving house though? Not ideally timed. But then it is ideally timed really, I guess it's just that the juxtaposition is a little unfortunate...

[oifonly.livejournal.com]

cor....what an excellent thing to do! *slowly turns green*

I hope you and sleepsy_mouse manage to get the house moving organised without too much hassle. :)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Me too. And I hope we manage to do it before February.

[sleepsy-mouse.livejournal.com]

seconded!

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Wow, that oughta be an adventure and a half. Have fun! Take good notes. ;)

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

It may not be Workbooks From The Spanish Riding School (http://www.amazon.com/Workbooks-Spanish-School-1948-1951-Charles/dp/0851318452/) but it will be the closest I'll ever get, so I'll certainly make the best effort I possibly can on that front...

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Have you read those? I'm v. intrigued, but they're just pricey enough that I'm having trouble justifying the purchase and I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy to sway myself one way or the other...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I haven't, no, but Charles Harris was Julian's mentor so we do get quite a lot of his teaching incorporated into what we learn- hence the year we've spent on the lunge. I do have Fundamentals Of Riding at home, which carries a lot of information in an incredibly terse fashion.

I would certainly like to read them but feel similar to you about the price/not having seen them thing. Come to think of it, someone I know must have a copy they'd be prepared to lend...

[skiesfirepaved.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! That is some news. Will you have internet while you're out there? I expect photos! The place looks gorgeous, I'm excited for you.
"Students are welcome to bring one horse free of charge to work on during their stay" - if I pay for Pepsi's air travel, can you take the grumpy old cowbag with you? :P Personally, I'd love to see how natural horsemanship would work on her. So if you ever find yourself with nothing to do... XD

It'll be interesting to work with cattle from horseback, I hope you have fun. Ooh, and roping! Bahahaa.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I've been working on my roping since September. I remain terrible at it.

When I get back I would love to come up and visit with you and Pepsi at some time- of course it's not really Natural Horsemanship in the way the people I'm working with talk about it but over the next few years I'll be all about doing as much as I can with as many different horses as I can, so it would be great for me...